It’s strange but true that there are a lot of people from Essex who can trace their ancestors back to a family of prominent landowners in Staffordshire. In the early 1540s, William Cardinall married Lettice, widow of William Clippesby of Norfolk, and daughter of William Knightley – a Norwich lawyer who was descended from the Staffordshire family.
A great deal of contradictory information can be found online about the Knightleys, but Uncle Matthew’s letter is an extraordinary document, the kind that genealogists dream of finding. He clears up a great deal of mistakes which have crept into the Knightley family tree.
- Knightley brothers: William Knightley and Matthew Knightley
- Uncle Matthew’s letter and what it tells us
- Who were William and Matthew Knightley’s parents? (to follow)
- Knightley memorials in Fawsley church (to follow)
- Collections for a History of Staffordshire: The William Salt Archaeological Society